This tutorial will help people just getting into woodburning find the right
tools and supplies to help them get started. Read through this and be sure
to check out all the other tutorials to help you
Supplies
Woodburner (electronic
detail burner or solid-point single temperature burner of your choice)
Straight-edged razor or tip
cleaner strop & aluminum
oxide
steel/brass brush for cleaning
solid point burners blending
stick
red pen HB pencil
paint brushes 1 or
1-1/2" wide
natural bristle tooth brush or nail brush
practice board erasers (gum, rubber or electric)
graphite transfer paper masking
or painters tape
pencil sharpener oil
or clay-based pencils (optional)
acrylic or water color paint
(optional) Polyacrylic brush-on satin finish
wood or other suitable burning
material (be sure to read the tutorials Woodburning from A-Z and Material
Safety)
My list of
woodburning supplies
should not be considered the only ones you can use. Every artist and
instructor has his/her own style and unique way of doing things. They also
have their own preferences of supplies and tools. So keep in mind that my
recommendations are not necessarily the only ones, they are what I use. As
I remind people in my classes - experiment until you find what works best for
you. For example, when I first started burning someone recommended Deft
and everyone started using it, including me, but I like to research things and
test them myself to see what works best for my needs. I found that I
preferred a poly-acrylic brush on finish and that is what I now use. It's
more work and takes more time but the results are worth it.
So,
armed with the information I give you here, please remember, it is only a guide.
Experiment on your own to find what works best for you.
Saral transfer paper is a great tool for
transferring your patterns. Whatever the brand, it must be graphite. I have
found that buying it by the roll is usually cheapest, and remember, you can
reuse each piece. One word of caution, DO NOT use carbon paper, which is
paraffin wax, and can be toxic when you burn over it.
One of the most important things you need to do is clean the tips
of your burning pen. If you are using a good detail woodburner, such as a Razertip,
Optima or other fine polished pen tip, you DO NOT want to use any harsh
abrasive, such as sandpaper (any grit). The Razertip and Optima brands of
woodburner in particular, are
highly polished nickel/chromium alloy and you will ruin the tips if you use
sandpaper. They will last you a lifetime (yours) If you care for them
properly. I hear people telling me that they use fine sand paper for their pen
tips because someone recommended it and I cringe. If you want to keep spending
money on pens, that’s fine, but why throw money away? The best methods for
cleaning your tips are a strop with aluminum oxide powder, the tip cleaner
made by Razertip or just the edge of a straight razor.
When I clean my Razertip or Colwood pens, I use the aluminum oxide powder
and a composite strop (lasts longer than leather). When I clean the tips of
my Wall Lenk solid-point woodburning pen, I use a steel brush which does a nice job of cleaning the
carbon off the tips. The copper tips on these pens are heavy-duty and can
withstand the abrasive brush. Since I use my Wall Lenk mostly for deep, dark
shading and it burns at such a high temperature, it tends to build up carbon
faster than the Razertip. All you need is a few swipes across your tip with the
brush.
While I'm burning I
erase lines from the original design and sketch a different design. I use
my trusty paint brush to clean off the eraser shavings before I start burning
again. When my burning is all finished, I use a toothbrush or nail brush
(natural bristle) to clean off all the excess carbon before adding color (id I
use it) or applying the final finish.
When I trace a pattern/photo onto my wood, I use a red pen so I
can see where I have already traced and don’t have to pick up the photo to see
if I missed anything and run the risk of not having the lines in the right place
when I continue. I use a mechanical pencil for sketching directly on the wood.
My two favorite erasers are my electric eraser and General’s Gum
Eraser. They are great for removing pencil/graphite from the wood without
smudging. My other favorite eraser is the “magic eraser”, or commonly referred
to as a single-edge razor blade. It is something no woodburner should be
without!
If you want to use color in your burnings, there are many
options. You can choose from a variety of paints or pencils. The Derwent Studio pencils are clay-based and
have beautiful soft colors that are easy to blend. The Walnut Hollow or
Prismacolor oil-based
pencils offer nice bright colors that can be blended with a blender stick.
Coloring or leaving your burning natural is strictly a personal thing. I rarely
add color because I prefer my woodburning to look like a woodburning, not a
painting on wood. When I do add color it’s usually just for accent and I use
pencils, both the studio and the oil pencils, depending on the look that I want
to achieve.
The last item I am going to discuss here is the finish that I use
on my burnings. When I first started burning I was told by many people that
Deft was the finish of choice so that is what I used. It leaves a nice finish
on the burning without altering the overall appearance, but provides no UV
protection. At this point I want to stress that woodburnings can fade,
especially if they are displayed in front of a window or under fluorescent
lights. There is not much you can do to prevent it completely, but using a good
finish with UV protection will help.
After much research, I settled on using a
poly-acrylic blend that I brush on. It leaves a beautiful finish and will
not yellow or discolor the wood.
Woodburning Tools
There are two basic types of woodburning tools: the
solid-point, single-temperature pen, such as the Wall Lenk, and a
detail burner with temperature control. There are many woodburners on the market today
with temperature controls and I have used most of them. After several years of
experimenting with them, I now use the Razertip and Colwood woodburning systems and use just a few pens for everything I do. Many burners
come with single output, meaning you can only attach one cord and pen at a time;
or dual output, meaning that you can attach two cords and pens at one time and
merely flip a switch to go from one pen to the other. It is really a personal
choice which is better since most pens just take a second to remove.
I also use and recommend a fixed-tip style pen rather than one
with replaceable/interchangeable tips. It may be cheaper to buy one pen handle and several tips,
but you get better heat distribution with fixed tips and they do not overheat as
much with higher temperatures over extended periods of time. I also use a
heavy-duty cord rather than a standard cord so that I have a wider range of heat
control without overheating the pens.
The pens I use and will
demonstrate in Pyrography 101 are Razertip, Nibsburner and the new Colwood polished tips.
Similar pens are also made by Optima, but all Razertip, Nibsburner and Colwood pens can be adapted for
use with most brands of electronic burners. If you do not have suitable pens
and want to use a Colwood, Nibsburner, Razertip or other brand of pen on your burner, I
recommended that you use a replacement cord rather than an adaptor plug with your
existing cord.
When I first started burning I had no clue what pens I needed, so
when I bought my burner, I asked the vendor and ended up buying a burner with
twelve tips interchangeable tips. I used that burner for about a year and only
worked with three tips! When I got my Razertip I found that I still used three
pens to do everything I needed. The number of pens you will need depends on the
designs as well as the material you will be burning. If you are going to do
flat burning on wood and will not be doing any miniatures, you can probably do
everything you need with three pens.
I will briefly talk
about pens, but will go into more detail in another section. About ninety
percent of my work is done with one pen, the #5MP Razertip, Nibsburner 5BSM or E45 Colwood bent spear shader. This
is one of the most versatile pens you will ever own. I have done most of
my burnings using just this pen. You can do lines and you can vary the
thickness, depending on the look you want to achieve. Because of it's
design you can shade in tight spots that you might otherwise not be able to
reach with another shader. This pen is also available in a small size that is
ideal for fine detail work and miniatures such as tagua nuts and a brand new
thinner size for getting into the tightest spot. The Razertip #14
round-heeled knife, Nibsburner KN14B or BM or Colwood KR or GR (or skew) are other favorites of mine and is available in
several sizes depending on your needs. It is wonderful for curved lines, shading and I use this for grass, hair and fur depending on the look I want
to achieve. The curved back/heel makes it more versatile than flat skews. The
Razertip #9, Nibsburner 4M or Colwood MC writing pens are great for signatures and other free-form lines and it
is also available in several sizes. The Razertip #99 ball stylus' are great for a
multitude of things. I use the .08 mm for cursive writing and
pointillism. Their use is limited only by your imagination. The
Razertip #68 or the Nibsburner SQ
and Colwood C1 Calligraphy pens are not just for what the name suggests.
They are also great
shading tools. Those are just a few of the many pens available and I'll get
into them in more detail in another section.
Single temperature
burners such as
the Wall Lenk,
Walnut Hollow Creative Burner and Hot Tool are other useful tools. These
burners burn at a relatively high temperature and do take quite a bit longer to
heat and cool but for the beginner on a budget offer the opportunity to get
started to see if they really like doing pyrography. Another great tool is
the miniature torch. I use the single-temperature burners and torches for my dark backgrounds and find them very quick and efficient.
Happy Burning©!
Nedra
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Updated 10/29/09
